 Medieval song

Paterson is taken by the idea that dule-trees were places where a clan met to bewail any misfortune that befell the community.He cites an example where the friends and adherents of David, first Earl of Cassilis, met at the Cassilis dule-tree to lament, for several days, his loss at the disastrous Battle of Flodden in 1513.Lawson also gives these details and states that the retainers used to assemble under the tree to make lamentation upon the death of their chief, implying it was an old custom and not a 'one off.'